Cookie Friday

Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but 4th quarter is always hard for me. I think it's a combination of things. Here are just a few, in no particular order:

• The weather - The weather gets warmer. In the beginning it's a nice 70 degrees outside. So naturally, I want to be outside, not stuck in a stuffy room with unhygienic teenagers all day. As the quarter progresses, it warms to 80-90 degrees outside. This means in a 50+ year-old building without air conditioning, it's a sweltering 90-100 degrees inside. I definitely don't want to be stuck in a stuffy room with unhygienic teenagers all day.

• Pencils - If I hear, "Ms. George, I didn't bring a pencil" or "Ms. George, can I borrow a pencil?" one more time, I may stab a student in the eye with a pencil. Seriously, they're 7th graders and have been attending school for the past 7-8 years. You'd think they'd know they need a pencil for school. If I wanted to hand out pencils all day, I'd work at Office Depot!!

• Assemblies - For some reason 4th quarter is always full of dumb-ass (is that hyphenated?) assemblies. I hate assemblies. I am very much a believer that school should be a place for educating, not entertaining. But during 4th quarter we have to take out 90 minutes of education each week to entertain our little darlings with an assembly/activity. The following are just a few that are scheduled: student/teacher basketball game, student/teacher dodge ball game, teacher talent assembly, award assembly, end of the year dance, yearbook signing, mini-Olympics, etc, etc, etc.

• "What? We have an assignment?" - For some reason (maybe it's all the assemblies), my students are shocked that I still give them assignments throughout 4th quarter. This gets worse and worse as we near the end of the year. "Why do we have to do this? In (insert any teacher's name) class, we're just watching a movie." My response, "Well, I'm sorry. (Insert teacher's name) is a shitty teacher."

So, what gets me through this hell, known as 4th quarter? Cookie Friday. Cookie Friday is a well-loved tradition between me and nine other teachers at my school. Because 4th quarter has 10 weeks, each of us is assigned a week to bring cookies for the group. On our assigned week, we bring cookies in on Friday and have them delivered to the other members. It's something so simple, but it really does work. It makes me less ornery and more willing to put up with the ridiculousness that goes on during the quarter.